Iyad Ag Ghaly, the leader of the Mali jihadi militant group Ansar Dine, which may be behind the attack on the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali, has recently called for attacks on France.
Ghaly is a Malian Tuareg militant who has been active in the Tuareg rebellions against Mali's government since the 1980s. He has been nicknamed "the strategist."
Ghaly released an audio statement on November 1, in which he threatened France and rejected any peace deal in Mali.
The audio statement was published by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb AQIM), which has close ties to Ansar Dine, according to the Long War Journal.
In the statement, Ghaly said that the French were "oppressing" the people of Mali and said that Ansar Dine was "combating a new horn from the horns of global disbelief" that was a "result of the French Crusader campaign that brought all its knights and horses, and its slaves and its insane ones against the Shariah of Islam in this land."
Ghaly went on to call for jihad against the French people and to call on Muslims in France to also wage jihad against France.
The Ansar Dine leader also praised the January attacks against the Paris-based satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Moving quickly back to Paris, AFP reports that the Paris prosecutor's office has officially identified the female body found in the raided apartment in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis as Aitboulahcen.
Aitboulahcen was identified in the media and by police sources as the suicide bomber who blew herself up following an exchange with police at the start of the raid.
The BBC says that the Qatari Al Jazeera TV has identified the militant group attacking the Radisson Blu hotel on Mali as the Ansar al-Din group, an "extremist military group that seeks to implement Islamic Sharia in Mali," according to the channel's correspondent in Mali.
One of those able to get out of the Radisson Blu in Mali was Sekouba Bambino Diabate, a popular Guinean singer. The singer released unharmed, according to Guinean news reports.
"I woke up with the sounds of gunshots and for me, it was just small bandits who came in the hotel to claim something," he told journalists, according to the BBC.
"After 20 or 30 minutes, I realized these are not just petty criminals."
The Rezidor Hotel Group, which operates the Radisson Blu in Bamako, has published a statement on the hotel's website.
It reads:
"The Rezidor Hotel Group...is aware of the hostage-taking that is ongoing at the property today, 20th November 2015. As per our information, two persons have locked in 140 guests and 30 employees. Our safety and security teams and our corporate team are in constant contact with the local authorities in order to offer any support possible to reinstate safety and security at the hotel. At this point, we do not have further information and continue to closely monitor the situation."
In a second statement shared with RFE/RL by email, Rezidor said:
We are extremely concerned about the situation in Mali and for the safety of all our guests and employees in the hotel. Our safety & security teams and corporate team are in constant contact with the authorities there, and will share further information with you when we have it.
The Radisson Blu is popular with ex-pats working in Mali.
Sky News has tweeted some footage of the scene outside the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali's capital, Bamako.
A number of Chinese guests are among those trapped in the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali's capital Bamako, China's state-run Xinhua news agency is reporting.
"A Chinese guest surnamed Chen told Xinhua via WeChat mobile app that he was among a number of Chinese guests trapped in the hotel," Xinhua said.
It is not known exactly how many Chinese guests are among those trapped in the hotel.
An eye witness to the Mali hotel attack says that the gunmen arrived in a car this morning with diplomatic plates. They were wearing masks.
The gunmen who attacked the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali are moving from floor to floor, a senior security source says.
The official Twitter account of Mali's President's office has tweeted about the attack on the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako.